IPL 2020 | We didn’t adapt quite as well we expected to from Sharjah, admits Steve Smith

As it had it, captains winning and toss and opting to field first seems to become a big mistake, leading to the sides losing all the times this tournament. Steve Smith, who won the toss elected to send KKR to bat first in what looked like an absolute good track for batting early on. While Rajasthan Royals struck early to send Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana back, the likes of Shubman Gill combined with Andre Russell and Eoin Morgan took KKR to 174 for the loss of six wickets. 

It left a long mountain for the Royals batting unit to climb but a one that they have relatively done with ease twice in a fortnight. On the back of a confidence-boosting victory over Kings XI Punjab, the early onslaught from Royals seemingly looked to take the game down to another thriller. However, just after that, a combination of excellent bowling from the Knight Riders’ pace unit and Rajasthan’s top-order’s bad shot selection reduced them to a miserable state, eventually losing them the game.

Following the loss, Steve Smith admitted that the match did not quite fall according to the plans. He also joked that some members of the team are still hung-over to playing at Sharjah, with the Royals having played two games at the same venue. 

“Didn't quite go to plan, but that happens in T20 cricket sometimes. I think it could go one way or another [the decision at the toss]. We lost too many wickets upfront, a few of us probably thought we're still playing at Sharjah! The far side is a very big side, we didn't see too many balls go up above that fence there,” he said at the post-match presentation ceremony. 

On the other side, Smith also stated that the team didn’t quite well adapt to the different conditions and the dimensions of the ground. 

“We probably didn't adapt as well as we could have to the wicket and the dimensions. We'll wait and see about switching the XI around. Wasn't much of a battle! Just spoke to him and he said you normally smack those in the nets. got a good one tonight,” he concluded.